Goldrush is the ultimate celebration and culmination of the uni experience

Welcome to Goldrush.

Forget graduation ceremonies, robes and certificates. The real celebration of graduation is having fun with your friends. Goldrush allows for everyone who is finishing their time to “rush” around looking for their nugget of gold. You bite the bullet. Our predecessors tell us that its time to finally make a move on the one you previously thought was off limits. The truth is: you might never see them again. Goldrush culminates in a blow out night, where weird things happen. This is because four years in the (recently voted and confirmed) country’s best city are coming to an end.

The sad reality is, you blink, and it’s gone. Four years. Your youth? Over. Real life? Imminent. Library/pub/club days, done. Reflecting on time at Edinburgh has unearthed some raw truths and exposed some moments of insanity. Goldrush is here, and everything is suddenly coming to an end.

First year, and you are a clueless Fresher who wades through the hellish days of “name-games”. The first lecture opens with: “One in four of you will marry someone in this room…” – everyone blushes, looks around, and then all eyes are averted. This – warning – is NOT TRUE. I am not yet married, indeed, there are no suitable candidates lined up from that first lecture. What else happens? Well you go to Why Not on a Monday. In the glory days (2012) we would eat lunch in Bonningtons, drink in the Salisbury, and spend every Thursday night in Opal. This doesn’t change.

Post Dinner Party Scene: perfecting the skill of  a dinner

Second year, and you’re in a flat. How do we pay bills? WTF is council tax? Who used my loo roll? How does that person NEVER get out of bed and still get a first. Don’t worry. All of these things are normal. The first dinner party is always a turning point: who do you invite? What do you cook? How do you get 25 people into your sitting room, when you have about four chairs and five wine glasses. It’s ok, you will soon learn that everything and anything can be drunk out of, and go to Ikea and buy some pop up chairs.

Third year and, “good things come to those who wait” – true on two levels. One: this is the best year in Edinburgh. You’ve waited for the glory days. Edinburgh is your city. Enjoy yourself. Work hard, have fun, find yourself a boyfriend/girlfriend, fill out your CV. Time. To. Make. Shit. Happen. Enjoy the freedom – less people, more time, more fun.

Fourth Year: ‘All’s well that ends well’ (Photography credits to Ben Glasgow)

Fourth year: Gulp. It’s here. You are THAT person in the library from dawn to dusk. You do not yet have a boyfriend, or a job, or know the meaning of life, or a mortgage, or manage to budget successfully. Your quarter life crisis is in full swing: desperation turns into denial, and worry turns into wonder. The insanity of dissertation-days can be quite fun, and then boom, you come back down to earth are realise it is all doable. You complete your finals, and then it’s GOLDRUSH.

All these amazing years, the four years of fun with your friends, turns into a night of foolishness and fornication. Nothing and no one is off-limits. My friend’s already got a snog-list written up on her wall (eight guys!).

Gold Rush: ‘state of mind’

So that is it. Sometimes the best moments are the silly meaningless ones when you just look around and think “shit, this is fun. Four years wind up and you suddenly realise you are leaving the best city in the world. Where even when the sun isn’t shining, the people are, and the streets smile as you walk along them.

If you have time left, enjoy it. If you are leaving, enjoy it. Thanks Edinburgh for the best four years ever.

Have a look at the Gold Rush Facebook page for more information.